There are many types of industrial plant control systems (IPCS) known in the art for controlling industrial equipment and processes. One such conventional IPCS 100 is shown in FIG. 1A. As shown in FIG. 1A, the IPCS 100 includes a primary server 102, an operator computing system 110, a secondary (or back-up) server 104, a plant control system 106, and industrial equipment 108. The plant control system 106 has a distributed network configuration, i.e., there are application specific modules connected to each other, industrial equipment, and operator interfaces via a local control network.
Each of the components 102, 110, 106, 108 is well known to those having ordinary skill in the art, and therefore will not be described in detail herein. However, it should be understood that the operator computing system 110 is configured to enable the control of the industrial equipment 108 by an operator (not shown). As such, the operator computing system 110 includes a user interface 130 and a processing device 132. The user interface 130 is often comprised of a keyboard (not shown), a mouse (not shown), a display screen 112, and the like. The display screen 112 and processing device 132 collectively display a set of display windows 114, 116, 118, 120 to the operator (not shown). The phrase “display window” as used herein refers to a visual area of the display screen 112 configured to display at least one graphical user interface (GUI). GUIs are well known to those skilled in the art, and therefore will not be described herein.
If the primary server 102 is online, then the primary server 102 provides a means to select a plurality of monitor-control graphical user interfaces (MCGUIs) 122, 124, 126, 128 to be displayed in the display windows 114, 116, 118, 120. The phrase “monitor-control graphical user interface” as used herein refers to a graphical user interface which displays information and generally provides command control for monitoring and/or controlling applications, such as for an industrial process or industrial equipment. Alternatively, if the primary server 102 is offline and the secondary server 104 is online, then the secondary server 104 performs actions to select a plurality of monitor-control graphical user interfaces (MCGUIs) 122, 124, 126, 128 to be displayed in the display windows 114, 116, 118, 120.
The MCGUIs 122, 124, 126, 128 typically include a text display area (not shown), a video display area (not shown), an image display area (not shown), command buttons (not shown), scroll bars (not shown), and/or the like. Each of the MCGUIs 122, 124, 126, 128 is displayed in a particular display window 114, 116, 118, 120. For example, an MCGUI 122 is displayed in the display window 114. Similarly, the MCGUI 124 is displayed in the display window 116. Likewise, the MCGUI 126 is displayed in the display window 118. The MCGUI 128 is displayed in the display window 120. However, it should be understood that more than one GUI can be displayed in each of the display windows 114, 116, 118, 120.
Despite certain advantages of such a conventional IPCS 100, it suffers from certain drawbacks. For example, if the primary server 102 fails, then the secondary server 104 performs a re-set process to re-set the MCGUIs 122, 124, 126, 128. During this re-set process, the display windows 114, 116, 118, 120 are shut-down and each of the MCGUIs 122, 124, 126, 128 is re-invoked. As a result of the re-invocation process, the MCGUIs 122, 124, 126, 128 reappear in a random order on the display screen 112 as shown in FIG. 1B. Stated differently, each of the MCGUIs 122, 124, 126, 128 reappears in a respective display window that is generally different from the previous arrangement of GUIs in the previous respective display window. One can appreciate that the randomly ordered MCGUIs 122, 124, 126, 128 may result in operator confusion. The randomly ordered MCGUIs 122, 124, 126, 128 may also result in improper operator actions that can cause a failure of an industrial process or an abnormality in the industrial process.